Draft IPR Policy Under Inter-ministerial Consultation

Once inputs from various ministries are incorporated, final version of the policy will be moved to the Cabinet; India has been under pressure from developed nations on IPR regime

The much-awaited National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy will be moved to the Cabinet soon after incorporating inputs from various departments, commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

The IPR think tank headed by Justice Prabha Sridevan, set up by the government last year, formulated a draft patents policy earlier this year. The think tank was set up to highlight anomalies in current IPR legislation and advise on possible solutions.

“After adopting a transparent process of drafting this policy, it (has been) with the government for a month or two. It has gone to all the ministries, which is a necessary process, for inter-ministerial consultation. We shall take inputs from various ministries and post that, (we) will give the final version to the Cabinet,“ the minister said in her address on trademarks at an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

The National IPR policy seeks to encourage innovation by providing tax incentives and modifying intellectual property rights. The new policy aims to bring clarity to existing laws and make changes wherever required to safeguard the interests of Indian industry and patent holders worldwide.

“Different people, countries and organisations have already given their inputs on the draft policy,“ she said. India has been under pressure from the US and other developed countries on the IPR regime. The minister reiterated India's stand that its IPR laws were compliant with international rules.

“Indian patent rights, GIs (geographical indicators), copyrights...Everything we are doing, the Acts which we have in front of us are TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) compliant. So there is no need for apprehension in any corner of the world as to what is India's patent regime is like,“ she said in her address at a seminar on Protecting Brands Abroad with the Madrid System that also marked the award of the 1.25th million international trademark to phone maker Micromax.

In order to reduce delays in applications and improve the functioning of patent offices in the country, the minister pointed out that 459 patent examiners have been recruited. “We are trying to get enough qualified people. We will train them so that applications do not have to wait for years to get cleared. Government is working on that,“ she said.

“We are also ensuring that patent offices are updated with new technologies so that they are not going to sit on tonnes of paper. It will help in reducing the manual interface,“ the minister added.

FDI COMPOSITE CAP

On the composite cap foreign direct investment (FDI) policy approved by the cabinet last week, the government clarified on Monday that the foreign institutional investment (FII) limit in the banking and defence sector has been retained at the existing level to prevent “fly by night operators“ from disrupting the sensitive segments.

The Economic Times, New Delhi, 21st July 2015

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